Starship remarks after the Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort press conference
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (2)
Transcript
0:02Elon MuskI tell you what, after career launch 100% okay. It's good to see everyone. I'm personally super fired up and excited and I think it feels like you guys are too as a public, you know, it's just going to be wonderful to get to as a voice back and forward from Americans.
0:23Elon MuskWell after almost a decade of helping with that's just super exciting. And like I said before with some technology advances.
0:37Elon MuskOn a, you know, a boost that's reusable and spacecraft that is reusable. The link prop it is for Dolphin Dragon is the alpha stage. So there's still a very big percentage of reusability and I keep saying reusability but really this reusability is extremely fundamental to revenue states as it would be if it was an aircraft or cars or bicycles or horses.
1:06Elon MuskYou really want them to be reusable and then get the product all the way down to simply reload propellant and fly a game just like aircraft. And that's really what's going to open up space for the average person.
1:28Elon MuskWe've been discussions with NASA about this for quite some time and my NASA is very open to this subject to obviously a lot of additional testing. What does it take to make.
1:42Elon MuskWell Crew Dragon especially even more than Dragon 1 is really designed with use model in mind. So it has a much more what we call a VVP propulsion section is essentially waterproof and even has growth pumps in the propulsion section which brings the very section out of donut in the bottom.
2:13Elon MuskSo we've really taken great steps to improve the usability of Crew Dragon over Cargo Dragon. And so I think it's for sure way easier to reuse reusability of course upon export from NASA.
2:31Elon MuskBut obviously the space shutt over was reusable and NASA is familiar with notion. But true Dragon is designed to be easily reusable. So with minimal refurbishment and with essentially it's signed to you rapidly and almost completely reusable drag which we great for lowering costs and improving launch rate.
3:04Elon MuskAnd the Rooster obviously the only thing that's fixing is that upper stage which is. Which is not reusable. But unfortunately we just don't have the payload capability to reuse the upper stage without them.
3:19Elon MuskWe've got an integrated upper stage and a nose portable fairing that is designed to be fully reusable and has. This is quite a big vehicle. Very big vehicle obviously.
3:35Elon MuskSo I'm hopeful that's made progress with Starship and at NASA using that vehicle. But there will be like a significant overlap between heavy crew Dragon and Starship to make sure that the starship is really ready and accepted by customers before we retire the existing crew.
4:01Elon MuskDo you have an updated timeline for half one starship when you expect to go over to the first?
4:13Elon MuskI think we're. We'll do more comprehensive update on Sasha in the future. But the I think we're making very good progress on the rat prevention. We're serial number 20 of the rapid prevention create a production on that.
4:32Elon MuskAnd the production rate of race is improving significantly as well as we're making a number of design improvements to the Raptor engine. So each serial number has some design improvements all the way up to 50.
4:48Elon MuskAnd so I think that roundup is going extremely well. Primary structure is slower and that's actually probably a later date to just work on some of the primary structure engineering issues, especially the domes.
5:10Elon MuskWhen you are engaged in sighting and building rockets, these things that seem perhaps trivial or not that important to the public or the uninitiated are actually incredibly difficult. Getting the domes right on the propellant tanks is one of the most difficult things.
5:30Elon MuskIt's just a film like how hard can it be? But it's hard. And they're getting aeroplane between the tank and the interstate or skirt that connects it to the booster.
5:42Elon MuskAnd then the interface from the tanks to the nose cone of the fairing, the body flight control surfaces, the landing gear, the landing legs, the heat shield. Just general operations.
6:00Elon MuskAnd then of course for starship be able to successfully achieved on orbit refilling is extremely important. But actually that's an example of where our work with docking with the space station is actually incredibly helpful.
6:15Elon MuskSay one of the fundamental technologists is needed to go to Mars. Orbital refilling is extremely important. That means you have to do precision docking in orbit. And our work with the space station with precision docking space station actually is one of the fun has helped us solve that very difficult problem of docking in orbit with precision reliably every time.
6:41Elon MuskBut now we need to do it with two giant spaceships. It's like a space station docking to a space station. So. But I'm very excited about the potential of Sasha and I think it's going to be something that really have a profound step change effect in humanity's ability to go beyond that.
7:02Elon MuskThank you. Thank you.